U.s. Envoy Assails Chechnya Assault

December 24, 1999|By Celestine Bohlen, New York Times News Service.

MOSCOW — Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott ended two days of talks on a sour note here Thursday, accusing Russia of "indiscriminate killing" in Chechnya and leaving without breaking a lingering stalemate between Washington and Moscow over a major arms control treaty.

As Russian forces continue to pound rebel positions in the breakaway republic of Chechnya, Talbott offered some of the harshest U.S. criticism to date of the Kremlin's military campaign, which proved enormously popular in parliamentary elections this week. He said Russia was violating "international norms" in Chechnya by treating civilians as "terrorists."

At a time when U.S.-Russian relations are strained by Chechnya and lingering disagreements over a series of other issues. Talbott wound up his meetings with top officials in Moscow by saying that "substantial differences, even disagreements" remain over Washington's proposal to modify the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty over Russia's vigorous objections.

Washington wants to amend the treaty to allow both nations to field defense systems to protect against limited long-range missile attacks. The United States says this would help the two countries protect against nuclear terrorism, but Russia asserts that changing the treaty could set off a new arms race.

As Talbott left, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow "confirms its fundamental position of not accepting any attempts to undermine this agreement."

The U.S. envoy had come to Moscow at a time of renewed optimism on arms control. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, buoyed by the strong showing by his supporters in parliamentary elections Sunday, had said he would push for a long-delayed vote on ratification of START II, the arms control treaty signed in 1993 that calls on both countries to reduce their nuclear warheads to 3,500 by 2002.

But as Talbott left Moscow, Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev offered a gloomy view to reporters in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, saying that Russia's relations with NATO are sinking.

"Our relations with the alliance have apparently entered a new phase of getting colder," Sergeyev said. "The alliance is trying to talk to Russia about the problem of Chechnya from a position of force."

Talbott expressed support for Russia's goals in eliminating "extremism and terrorism" in Chechnya but said its methods should correspond to international law. "The feeling is that this standard has not been met," he told reporters after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

"Clearly there are many people in Chechnya who don't want to see their territory used as a base for operations against Russia," Talbott said. "But they also don't want to see themselves treated as terrorists and enemies, not to mention victims of indiscriminate killing and driving people from their homes."

A day after Putin said almost all of Chechnya is under Russian control, Russian military spokesmen said federal forces were fighting guerrillas on several fronts: near Chechnya's western border with Dagestan, another Russian region, and in its southern mountains, where 350 rebels reportedly were trying to break out of the village of Sezhen-Yurt.

Russian television reported Thursday night that federal troops were closing in on the Chechen capital of Grozny.

A top Russian commander, Col. Gen. Viktor Kazantsev, said that Grozny would be taken by special operations, not by storm. He also said Russian troops would be in full control of the entire region within three weeks "at the most."